The King's Hall

The King's Hall was given to
Cookham by Colonel Ricardo in 1911 for use as a reading room. Up until
that time the King's Hall had been used as a place of divine worship for
the Wesleyan Methodists having been erected in 1846. However it
became too small for the needs of the people of Cookham and a new Methodist
Church was built at Cookham Rise. The old building was then
vacated and put up for sale. Colonel Ricardo added a new
porch, thus making a new entrance and transformed the inside of the
building into a Reading and Recreation room.

The
Maidenhead Advertiser of 1911 says 'There is a platform, which if required
can be used for concerts and meetings while carpets covered the
floor and there is an ample supply of easy chairs and tables, at which the
users of the place can sit and read the fine collection of books which
adorn the shelves of a handsome bookcase, or play table games......This
new institution is to be called The King's Hall.''

It
was intended by Colonel Ricardo that the building should not be placed in
the hands of a corporate body such as the
Parish Council or County Council and so he suggested that the best
plan would be to nominate as trustees the Vicar and Churchwardens. Colonel
Ricardo asked Rev. Dr. Batchelor to accept the trusteeship. He said
that the number of trustees should not exceed 7 in number.

The number of books initially was 250, but
Colonel Ricardo hoped that this would be increased. The alterations
included taking the two memorial windows out and transferring them
to the new Methodist
Church in Cookham Rise. The new porch, which Colonel Ricardo had
built, has his crest on it. It is also in the apex of the east
gable. Several Doré pictures decorated the walls and a portrait of King
George V, in admiral's uniform, was hung between the windows.

Upon his death in 1924, Colonel Ricardo
left a legacy of £814 2s 0d, an amount sufficient to produce £40.00 per
annum to be used for the maintenance etc. of the 'King's Hall
Reading and Recreation Room'. More recently, this charity was 'merged'
with the King's Hall charity as it had become impracticable and
unnecessary to account for two charities separately.

The Vicar of Cookham and Churchwardens were
the only trustees until 1982 when the Charity Commission decided that
since the King's Hall was not an ecclesiastical charity, then proper
provision should be made for the representation of the general public. The
two additional 'co-optive' trustees should be persons who, through
resident, occupation or employment etc have special knowledge of the Civil
Parish of Cookham.